It Takes Two To Tango
by stress
Summary: [BALH fic] Skittery and Jack… whoever would have thought that they would be partners in crime? When something of Jack’s goes missing, it’s up to those two to try to get it back – by any means necessary.


Author's Note: _Well, I kept meaning to write something for Rogue's title challenge for the Bottle Alley Lodging House and, with ½ an hour to spare, I did it. It's a bit of fluff and has no real plot… but I do like the title. Pity I can't claim it, heh._

Disclaimer: _Both Jack Kelly and Skittery are characters from the 1992 Disney film, _Newsies. _The other characters mentioned here are characters in the Bottle Alley Lodging House and are credited to their individual creators._

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It Takes Two (To Tango)

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"Tell me, Jack, cause I'm curious… why am I here, doin' this with ya? I could be sleepin', you know."

Jack Kelly took his cowboy hat off of his head and dropped it behind him. Because of the cord that kept it tied around his neck, the somewhat new, somewhat crushed brown hat hung down his back. He ran a callused and newsprint stained hand through greasy brown hair, slicking the shaggy strands back. His brown eyes narrowed as looked over his shoulder, eyeing the tall, lanky boy that stood behind him. "You're kiddin' me, right, Skitts?"

With a yawn, Skittery Daniels shrugged and scratched his dark-haired head absently. It had been a long day, hawking the headlines down by Bottle Alley, and he had been looking forward to an early night.

But Jack, it seemed, had had other plans. Not much later than sundown, the Cowboy wannabe had come hurrying into the bunkroom of the Duane Street Lodging House, his eyes wide and his face twisted into a scowl. It was a look that was not worn well on Jack's rugged, yet handsome, looks and Skittery had been intrigued enough to look up from his bunk and call him on it.

Unfortunately for him, though, he was the one that Jack had been looking for. After a quick explanation – Skittery thought he had made out the words "Bottle Alley", "Rogue", "mine" and "now" – and the promise of a swift kick in the pants if Skittery did not get up and follow him, the two of them had made their way to the Girls' Home down at Bottle Alley.

But now, as the two of them stood, hidden in the shadows, standing at the back entrance of the Bottle Alley Home, Skittery thought it was about time that Jack at least explained what was going on.

"Nope. You came and got me and now we're here. Why are we here?"

Jack lifted his eyebrows. "One word for ya: Rogue."

"Rogue… yeah, I'm pretty familiar with her," Skittery said sarcastically. It wasn't exactly a secret around the distribution center that he'd been seeing one of the girls from Bottle Alley; most of the boys from the lodging house on Duane did. There was Jack and his girl, Stress. Bumlets was seeing Holiday, Dutchy was with Morning Glory… even the Walking Mouth, Dave, had a girl. "What's she got to do with me bein' down here when I should be sleepin'?"

Jack scowled again. "Your Rogue took somethin' from me and I aim to get it back."

"Is that all? What was it, Jack? I could get it back for you tomorrow, if you can wait."

Despite the setting darkness, Skittery was able to see that there was a hint of color flushing Jack's cheeks and he knew that this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. He sighed. He already could tell that he wasn't going to be going to sleep anytime soon.

"Oh, come off it, Jack. You can tell me… what did she filch from ya?"

Lifting his hand up, Jack began to fiddle with the ends of the red bandana that was tied around his neck. "She took my book."

Skittery, for a second, was confused. He knew that Jack could read – it was kind of hard to sell a paper if you couldn't read what the headlines said – but he never figured him as the kind to sit down and read for fun. Come to think of it, he wasn't sure he had ever seen Jack with a book. "A book?"

"Yes, a book. My Western Jim book, alright. About the West." Jack practically spit the words out. It seemed he did not like admitting that he actually had a book, let alone a book that detailed so obvious a dream of his.

Skittery didn't know what to say so he shrugged again. "Alright, and ya came and got me because…" He still didn't understand. So what if Rogue took his book – it wouldn't take much to get it back and, besides, he was sure she had a good reason to take it.

"Because you're gonna help me get it back," Jack said matter-of-factly. "Your girl stole it and that makes you, uh, what's the word? Lie-able. Gotta help me."

Rolling his dark eyes back at Jack, Skittery knew that his friend had been listening to David Jacobs speak again. He had never heard that word before but he would be damned before admitting it so, not having anything else he could do, he nodded. "Alright, count me in. But only cause Rogue did it." He paused for a second. "Hey, why _did _she take your stupid book?"

Jack purposely chose to ignore Skittery's question. Instead he pulled a long hatpin out of his back pocket and offered it to Skittery. "Here. I know that Mrs. Cook leaves the backdoor locked but I also know that you know how to pick locks. So, yeah… go on. Let us in, Skitts."

"Let me guess, Jack. Because I'm, er, lie-able, that means I gotta break into the Bottle Alley Home just so you can get a ratty old book back?" Even to Skittery – who did know how to use a hatpin to open a locked door – that sounded questionable.

He pretended to think it over for a minute before nodding. "Yup."

Skittery sighed. "If I do this, I get to go straight back to Duane Street once you're done, alright? I'll talk to Rogue about what she's done tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… whatever you say, Skittery. Just let us in."

Jack still held the hatpin out to Skittery, who snatched it right out of the other boy's hand. Mumbling something about "stupid books", he shuffled right over to the back door and sized it up. It was a big door but it did not look too difficult. He slipped the long pin into the keyhole of the hand and—

_Snap_.

"Oops."

Skittery was wrong.

"'Oops'? What do you mean 'oops', Skittery?"

Skittery held out the hatpin – or, rather, both halves of it – to Jack. "Do you have another one, Cowboy?"

Jack looked at the broken hatpin and exhaled. "No, Skitts. I don't have another one. How was I supposed to know that you'd break the only one I had?"

He had taken a very annoyed tone with Skittery, who did not appreciate that at all. He tossed the snapped object to the dirt. "Well, how was I supposed to know that you'd ask me to break into the Bottle Alley Home for a fuckin' _book_?"

There was a moment of tense silence – while both boys tried to think of another set of retorts – before Jack opened his mouth to continue. However, just as he did so, he happened to glance upwards. What he saw caught his attention and he grinned.

Skittery didn't like that grin. A grin like that on Jack Kelly's face told him one thing: he still wouldn't be going to bed anytime soon.

He shrugged again, this time in a manner of defeat. "What now, Jack?"

Jack pointed above him. "There's a fire escape, Skitts. We can climb up it and let ourselves in through the window."

Skittery followed Jack's extended finger. The fire escape, as far as he could tell, was a good three feet above their head, rigged so that random street walkers could not climb up and do exactly what Jack wanted them to do. And, in a few choice words, he told the other boy as much.

Skittery's pessimism did not damper Jack's great idea. In fact, Jack was actually one step ahead of him. As the pink shirt-wearing newsie pointed out the flaws in Jack's plan, Jack was quietly removing his belt. And, seeing how his belt was actually a length of frayed, yet sturdy, rope, Skittery had to admit… it might just be a good idea.

"Look," Jack explained, expertly handling the rope, even though he was as much a true cowboy as Skittery was part of the Rockefeller family, "I'll hook it 'round and, once the rope's caught, we'll pull the ladder down. We'll be upstairs before you know it."

Skittery looked upwards and, from his position on that back street, he could see the window that Jack was aiming to get into it. "Hey, Jack," he said, watching as his pal was attempting to do what he said – trying to wrap his trusty rope around the fire escape – "how do you even know that Rogue's up there. Or your book, for that matter?"

Again, though, Jack ignored him and Skittery had the feeling that he wasn't going to get any information out of the other boy that he was not prepared to offer. Skittery was not surprised.

He was, though, when, on the third try, Jack actually got the rope to do what he wanted. There was a loud crashing sound and, _voila, _the fire escape was in reach.

"Nice one, Jack," he said. "Now what?"

Jack, looking altogether quite impressed with himself, pointed to the ladder. "Up you get, Skittery."

With a sigh, and a I-can't-believe-he's-really-making-me-do-this-over-a-book expression, Skittery started the climb to the bunkroom window. It was not much of a climb and, with Jack Kelly climbing right up behind him, he did not dawdle. The way he saw it, Skittery just wanted to get in there, get the book back and get back to his bunk.

He hadn't expected the window to be locked, though. And, from the frustrated grunt that Jack let out when he saw Skittery struggle with the locked window, he hadn't expected it, either.

"What now, genius?" Skittery asked, obviously annoyed as Jack climbed around him and joined him on the same step of the fire escape. "You want I should smash the window just so you could get inside?"

"Hey, it wasn't my girl who went around stealin' your stuff," Jack began, a mild pout beginning to form before it was swapped with a triumphant look. "Wait a second, is that Shoe? Yeah, that's Shoe," he said before rapping on the window. "Shoe! Over here!"

The blonde-haired girl lifted her head up. She had been wandering around the bunkroom, helping Mrs. Cook out by cleaning up after some of the messier lodgers. At first, she had thought that she was hearing things when she heard knocking but, upon looking up and over at the window, she was almost positive that she could see one – _no, two –_ faces lurking just outside.

It took her a second before recognizing the two faces and, when she had, she hurried over. Shoe fiddled with the lock for another second before lifting the window up. "Cowboy? Skittery? What are you two doing here?"

Skittery, with a deeply etched scowl on his face, jerked his thumb over at Jack. "Ask him."

Shoe's blue eyes turned to look at Jack. "Jack? The fire escape? What are you boys doin'?"

With his chin stuck out in a defiant manner, Jack pointed towards a bunk near the doorway. "Rogue. She took somethin' of mine and I came to get it back."

"Okay, then," Shoe said, still not really understanding why the two boys were on the fire escape but polite enough to humor them, "what did she take? Maybe I can find it for ya."

The color was coming back to Jack's cheeks but Skittery was getting tired of this. "She took his Old West book, Shoe. Who the hell knows why but she did and he needs to have it. Can you see if it's there?"

"The Western Jim pamphlet?" Jack nodded. "Yeah, I saw it. But are you sure she took it? Rogue was tellin' everyone that she borrowed it from ya, Jack, and was lookin' everywhere for you to give it back. When she couldn't find ya, she brought it back here." Shoe looked vaguely confused as she walked over to Rogue's bunk and picked something up from the foot of the bed. The pamphlet in her hand, she crossed the room and held it through the open window. "Here ya go."

Jack – whose face was even redder than it had been, though he still had that defiant air around him – accepted it gratefully before stuffing it unceremoniously into the back pocket of his trouser pockets. "Thanks," he said shortly before starting to head back down the fire escape. He wanted to get as far away as possible before Skittery worked out exactly what it was that Shoe had just said.

But Shoe, it seemed, wasn't ready to let them go without trying to clear this whole misunderstanding up even further. In a cheerful tone that told the two boys that she thought she was being helpful, she added, "And boys? Next time you need something, don't be shy. Mrs. Cook doesn't shut up the front until curfew. There's no need to use the fire escape, you know."

Skittery – who, while Shoe was offering her advice, _had _figured out what exactly had happened – almost twitched as he saw Jack scurrying down the fire escape. "Ya hear that one, Jack? No need to use the fire escape, eh?" Despite his annoyance, he yawned.

And to think that he could have been sleeping right then.


End file.
